Concert Analysis

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Bruce Springsteen

Professor Gernhart

April 18, 2017

MUSI 1306 - 5007

Concert Analysis 1 - Saxophone Recital

This concert/recital was performed by one of my high school friends who now attends

Baylor University and is in the School of Music. The recital was on March 18, 2017 at 2:00 P.M.

and was one of the requirements for him to graduate with his Music Education degree. Four

pieces were played, all for alto saxophone with piano accompaniment, but quite different in

style, from contemporary to ragtime. The performance took place in the Roxy Grove Recital Hall

(part of Waco Hall which is very close to the Baylor campus).

Honestly, all of the experience was quite new for me as I have never been to a solo

performance for saxophone. In fact, the only sax performances I have ever seen were at the

minimum a quartet, and at most a full symphony orchestra. The entire recital repertoire was all

new music to me. My girlfriend is a huge fan of the composer David Maslanka, and most of his

music did not particularly appeal to me. However, the first selection in the recital was "Concerto

for Alto Saxophone - I. Song: "Fire in the Earth"" was composed by him, and was the first piece

by him that I can honestly say I really liked.

The most impressive part of the recital would have to have been the fourth selection "The

Devil's Rag" (1988) by Jean Matitia. It provided a very fitting finale to the recital, and was

noticeably quite difficult for both the pianist and the saxophonist. I have always had a soft spot

for rag time -especially extremely difficult and hectic ragtime- and this piece certainly scratched

that itch, with very few mistakes to boot. The rag would also have to be the most appealing

selection, as I mentioned above how I feel about ragtime, however the Maslanka would be a very

close second (honestly because it sounded much more romantic than many modern pieces). In

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regards to the Maslanka, it was much more rhythmic, dynamic, and melodic all at the same time,

which is not something that I was expecting at the time.

My least favorite selection was "Images" (2008) by David Biedenbender. This was the

classic "modernistic" piece out of the entire rep, and -no surprises here- I found it much to

abstract for my taste. Both "Images" and "Fire in the Earth" were inspired by dreams that the

composers had previously had, however "Images" gave me a much more uneasy feeling and was

a lot more dissonant/atonal than I like. I've noticed that it seems a lot of modern music is inspired

by dreams, and it tends to follow the random nature of the dreams which leads to the typical,

well, randomness in music that I dislike.

The presentation was very professional, but had an almost informal feel to it (the

audience was around 30-50 people and they were all good friends of the performer. Following

that information, everything was ecstatically received. In my opinion they performed

exceptionally well and did not have many mistakes (and very few noticeable ones). On a scale of

1 to 10 with how much I enjoyed my first saxophone recital, I'd give it a solid 9, if not 10 simply

because of the incredible job they did on "The Devil's Rag". As someone who has almost always

preferred grandiose compositions - aside from my own piano solos - this was a very welcome

experience and I would be more than willing to repeat it.